Bolden courts Asian powerhouses for asteroid missions

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is continuing his attempts to gain additional international collaboration for the Agency’s Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) aspirations. Following a meeting with the head of JAXA, the Administrator then met with the President of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). No deals were signed as a result of the meetings.

NASA and the Asian Countries:

The Agency welcomed the leaders of both the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to Washington DC this month, covering a wide range of subjects relating to collaboration.

The meeting with JAXA, which took place on July 10, brought together two of the space agencies that have been working closely together with the International Space Station (ISS).

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“NASA has enjoyed a long-standing, mutually beneficial relationship with Japan in space exploration activities and we look forward to further discussions about our asteroid initiative,” General Bolden noted.

“We currently have more than 35 active agreements with JAXA in human spaceflight, Earth science, space science, and aeronautics, making Japan one of the agency’s leading partners in civil space cooperation.”

With one eye firmly focused on the future, General Bolden also promoted NASA’s plans to utilize the first two missions with the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion, culminating in the Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission (ARCM).

Hayabusa was an unmanned spacecraft, developed by JAXA, for the return of a material sample to Earth from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa.

Following launch in May 2003, the spacecraft rendezvoused with Itokawa just over two years later. After a few months of observations, Hayabusa landed on its surface and collected samples of the asteroidal material, which were returned to Earth aboard the spacecraft in June of 2010.

On Monday, General Bolden then met with the President of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Seung Jo Kim, to discuss collaboration in aeronautics research and space exploration, including KARI’s robotic lunar mission.

According to a NASA presser on what was the first meeting between the two leaders, Kim welcomed the chance to discuss opportunities for collaboration per NASA’s asteroid initiative.

“Our two agencies share a mutual interest in aeronautics research, and have identified opportunities for collaboration,” added General Bolden.

“We also have partnered for several years in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group and are looking forward to continued discussions on potential cooperation in space exploration.”

Although no new deals have been signed between NASA and the two Asian countries, international collaboration is fast becoming the key ingredient for enabling NASA’s technically challenging and hugely expensive exploration missions.

The ATV-derived service module – sporting a NASA supplied Orbital Manuevering System Engine (OME) – will provide propulsion, power, thermal control, as well as supplying water and gas to the astronauts in the habitable module.